A skills shake-up to keep children safe

For stressed-out social workers, the myriad efforts to reform their profession might feel rather removed from the everyday pressures on the frontline. But recommendations from the Social Work Task Force and Professor Eileen Munro’s review of child protection are beginning to make a difference to the processes that govern the work of professionals in some parts of the country.

The task force’s recommendations came partly in response to the tragic death of Peter Connelly. They included an overhaul of social work degrees; an assessed year in employment; and a national career structure, with the Social Work Reform Board charged with making it all happen.

Meanwhile, the Munro report called for better training; collaboration between employers and higher education; and ongoing, high quality supervision. In May, her one-year progress report highlighted positive steps such as the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment and the long-awaited establishment of the College of Social Work, also welcomed in the final report of the reform board.

Professional development
In Islington, social work reform programme manager Lucie Heyes is spearheading improvements in training, supervision and professional development to create the “learning culture” envisioned by Munro.

“After the first Munro report we introduced my post to manage workforce development and lead on implementing all recommendations from the task force and Munro,” she explains.

This includes testing group supervision and giving whole departments training in techniques such as motivational interviewing and short-term solution-based therapy. Everyone involved in trying to improve child protection agrees it is crucial to get training and development right.

But while Islington social workers are already seeing the benefits, plenty are not. “Many are in departments hit by cuts, with the learning and development of social workers one of the first casualties,” says Nushra Mansuri, professional officer for England at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).

She says social workers struggle to find the time for training or to secure it in the first place, with some fitting it in during their annual leave and even paying for it themselves. Moreover, according to Mansuri it is also easier to get support for courses clearly related to child protection than for those based on building relationships or reflective practice – despite the fact Munro emphasised these skills.

“Social workers feel removed from the reforms and don’t really know what’s happening,” she adds. “We spend a lot of time trying to raise awareness but many are too busy or burned out.”

The College of Social Work, which is responsible for some key changes, is striving to ensure frontline workers are involved. “We’re at the point where the talking is finished and organisations are having to implement the changes,” says Claire Barcham, professional practice development adviser at the college.

One key plank is the Professional Capabilities Framework, developed by the Social Work Reform Board and taken forward by the college. It sets out what social workers should be able to do at every stage of their career and is designed to underpin all training, from degrees to continuing professional development (CPD). It will include advanced and strategic levels by September.

Munro wanted specific capabilities formalised for child and family social work. Guidance has gone to universities and the college is planning post-qualification standards for child protection.

How the framework is implemented will vary. “In one place a course might be based on employers working together to provide on-site training or shadowing, while elsewhere it may be day release,” explains Barcham.

Improvements to training and development, informed by the framework and other pieces of work, will start to be felt in the next 18 months, she says. By September 2013 all social work degrees should reflect the framework and feature more all-round assessment and improved selection of potential social workers.

The college is running an endorsement scheme for education provision. Institutions have been invited to apply and by September there will be a list. It is also championing a new approach to CPD, aimed at making it less of a tick-box exercise, working alongside new social work regulator the Health Professions Council.

“It’s not about social workers doing a certain number of hours,” says Barcham. “It’s about saying: ‘this is what I did and this is what I learned’.” To support this, the college is establishing communities of practice where professionals can share ideas and resources. It is also developing an online portfolio to help members record and reflect on CPD activities.

Frozen support grant
Funding for initial training for universities and employers will continue to come from the Social Work Education Support Grant. The amount has been frozen at £28m for next year. The college ran a consultation last year for the Department of Health on the future of the grant with another consultation on the future of social work bursaries is under way.

Funding for CPD is “more challenging” for new entrants, admits Barcham: “We’re still awaiting the outcome of discussions with the Department of Health and Department for Education on what they will support.”

On supervision, new standards for employers and guidance on supervision are in place, hosted by the Local Government Association. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission have started looking at how these are implemented, says Barcham, who agrees quality must improve “so it is less about telling people what to do and more about helping them learn to make good decisions”.

The college is spreading the word about all this work through presentations and its website, but Barcham admits there is a mixed level of understanding at the moment.

One of the changes social workers will notice first is the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). This replaces the Newly Qualified Social Worker programme developed by the now defunct Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC). The college is working with the Higher Education Academy, Skills for Care and the ASYE development team on guidance for new, all-round assessment.

Islington is among the councils launching the assessed year programme in September and the authority is keen to ensure it is robust, fair and fits in with existing probation and supervision procedures. Heyes welcomes increased recognition of the importance of CPD as “an expectation, not a luxury” and says that swift access to the government’s new Social Work Improvement Fund, which supports councils to build capacity for reform, has helped protect training and development. But the year-on-year nature of the funding makes it difficult to plan ahead.

The authority’s new approach to training involves moving away from one-off training courses lasting a day or two. While short courses have their place, the idea is that they form part of a six-month approach where learning is followed up, put into practice and discussed with supervisors and the wider team. Meanwhile, trials of different types of group supervision are “increasing reflective thinking in the whole team”, according to Heyes.

Hampshire County Council is another due to launch the assessed year programme and is also working on a range of schemes to improve training and development. “A lot of what came out from the Social Work Reform Board was where we were aiming to move anyway,” says Paul Docherty, head of organisation and workforce development for children’s services at Hampshire. “But it’s helped by giving us a framework.” Social work managers have noticed an increase in the calibre of social workers coming out of university and are pleased with plans for the ASYE.

“Having some form of assessment and additional rigour will be useful for our programme and when we’re recruiting from elsewhere,” says Docherty, who also believes the Professional Capabilities Framework is a “strong move forward”.
“There are lots of performance development opportunities around and people need guidance on what’s necessary for their career,” he says.

Enhanced supervision
Hampshire used Social Work Improvement Fund cash to refresh senior managers’ supervision skills and has recruited workforce development officers for each of its eight districts to “provide an enhanced layer of supervision” for new social workers and those on its Early Professional Development (EPD) scheme. It has also employed a “knowledge manager” to help share lessons from research, inspection reports and serious case reviews.

While councils prepare to embark on the assessed year programme, the DfE has confirmed the continuation of other CWDC programmes including Step Up to Social Work, which encourages career changers to join the profession, and EPD for social workers in their second and third years.

Meanwhile, the profession faces further upheaval with the transfer in August of registration and regulation of social workers and social work education from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) to the Health Professions Council, which is to become the Health and Care Professions Council. GSCC chief executive Penny Thompson admits there is “a lot of anxiety” about the impact of the shift but says everything is being done to ensure a smooth transition. The change coincides with new proficiency standards for social workers, developed with reference to the capabilities framework.

Among the GSCC’s final contributions was a report on practice placements. “For all the concern about placements, they continue to be provided,” says Thompson. “Sustaining the supply will require strong partnership work and we need to learn from areas where partnerships are working well.”

But Thompson says it is important that the College of Social Work becomes as strong and authoritative an organisation for social workers as the Royal College of GPs is for GPs. “For that to be the case, social workers need to see the importance of having a professional college and get involved,” says Thompson, applauding the college’s appointment of Munro as initial chair for its children’s faculty.

Overall, she believes the reforms are on track but cautions: “These things always take time.”